JPMorgan agrees to pay $920m in penalties

Investment bank admits to wrongdoing and agrees to settle trading-losses case with US and British regulators.

JPMorgan called the settlements 'a major step in ... ongoing efforts to put these issues behind' it [EPA]

JPMorgan Chase, the US investment bank, has agreed to pay $920m in penalties in the US and Britain after admitting wrongdoing.

Settlements with four US and British regulators - made public on Thursday - resolve the biggest civil probes of the bank's $6.2bn of derivatives trading losses last year.

Citations against JPMorgan include poor risk controls and failure to inform regulators about deficiencies in risk management identified by bank management.

JPMorgan called the settlements "a major step in the firm's ongoing efforts to put these issues behind it".

The case came to light after Bruno Iksil, a trader, made huge losses, earning him the nickname the London Whale.

Iksil has signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Two other traders who worked with Iksil in London, Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout, have been criminally charged by US prosecutors over their role in the scandal, accused of trying to hide the mounting losses.

The penalties announced on Thursday include $300m to be paid to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, $200m to the Federal Reserve, $200m to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and $219.74m to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.

US regulators also ordered the company to refund about $309m to credit-card customers who were billed for identity-theft protection services that they did not receive.

Besides, the bank must pay a $20m penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $60m to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

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